South Australian Premier Peter Malinauskas has delivered a Donald Trump-esque speech in front of the AFL’s top brass during a Gather Round dinner on Wednesday.

As the “baby” Grange flowed at the Penfold’s Magill Estate, Malinauskas spoke in front of 250-odd guests, rasing eyebrows as his pitch to keep Gather Round in SA went full Trump.

With Gather Round about to blast off tonight (Thursday) in a blockbuster match between Adelaide and Carlton, once again all eyes are on South Australia as the AFL hosts a full round of football in the state.

Gather Round has been held exclusively in South Australia since its inception in 2023 and it seems likely to remain there as AFL chief Andrew Dillon and Malinauskas negotiate the details of the next contract.

But with those details yet to be locked in, Malinauskas decided to dial up the pressure on the league with a hilarious speech in the Gather Round welcome dinner.

“It’s important to acknowledge that there have been a couple of darker clouds hanging over the lead-up to this weekend,” he said.

“The first has been the events that have shaken the world ... in the Middle East with the conflict in Iran.

“It was ... a bit of good news with the news of a ceasefire. And it got me thinking about the second cloud hanging over this weekend’s events and that is literally on every South Australians’ mind, and that is whether there will be an extension of the Gather Round contract.

“Thinking this afternoon about the events of the ceasefire and what led up to it, I thought, well, maybe I need to take a leaf out of the book of the world’s greatest self-proclaimed dealmaker and negotiator. I thought I would take that seriously and act on the Donald’s lead, so I’m going to change our negotiating tactic, Andrew (Dillon). And I’m going to change things up with an escalatory tweet.

“To Craig Drummond (new AFL commission chairman) and other members of the commission, I should let you know that I’m about to post to Truth Social (Trump’s social media platform) the following: ‘So on the Gather Round extension, you f***ing crazy bastards, we’ll all be living in hell, just watch. Speak to the Jarmans, the Eberts’ ... thank you for your attention to this matter.”

Malinauskas then gunuinely thanked the AFL for “the platform” the AFL had provided South Australia.

“Its power has been extraordinary,” he said.

“There is something very, very special about it.”

Earlier, Dillon said SA had “put its best foot forward over four years” and all of Australia had embraced Gather Round.

“I’m looking forward to fruitful discussions with the premier,” Dillon said.

He added the league would move to 22 or 24 rounds - it is currently 23 - when Tasmania joins.

“Gather Round is unique ... it works really well in Adelaide,” he said.

“There’s complexity, when you’re talking about an additional game that wasn’t part of the collective agreement.

“We have a 19th team coming into the competition ... which means we’ll have a new competition structure.”

Dillon was asked if it would be silly to move Gather Round from Adelaide and its neighbouring regions.

“I’ve been accused of a lot of things and silly is one of them,” he said.

“Gather Round works here.

“If it makes sense to do it (an announcement) this weekend, we’ll do it. If it takes two weeks or two months later, we’ll do that as well.”

- With AAP